A method of forming interior parts of vehicles such as vehicle door trims using vacuum bonding to bond covers to surfaces of base members has been known. Such a method may be performed on a forming apparatus including a die set for forming a door trim while a base member and a cover are bonded together by pressure bonding. The die set of the apparatus includes an upper die and a lower die. The upper die and the lower die are moved in the vertical direction during open and close of the die set.
The forming apparatus including the upper die and the lower die that are movable in the vertical direction requires a considerable vertical size to allow the upper die and the lower die to move in the vertical direction and a considerable work space to set a forming object (e.g., a base member) between the upper die and the lower die of the die set that is open. Therefore, the forming apparatus having such a configuration tends to have a large vertical size.
An object is to provide a vacuum forming apparatus having a smaller vertical size in comparison to known vacuum forming apparatus and a vacuum forming method using the vacuum forming apparatus.